More French Tracts an Imperative Necessity.
By D. T. Bourdeau
During the past eight months I have, with the co-operation of a tract worker part of the time, distributed three hundred dollars’ worth of our French literature. Most of this reading-matter consisted of tracts. Some of it has been sent through the mail, but most of it has been handed out personally in the province of Quebec, especially in Montreal. By far the larger portion of this literature has gone to Catholics. We have not had sufficient tracts of any kind to cover one tenth of the city of Montreal. What about the nine tenths of the French inhabitants of this one city? What about the scores, the hundreds, of French cities and villages in the vast Dominion of Canada, in the United States, and in other portions of America, that have not been touched in the work of tract distribution? Shall all these be passed by unnoticed, and without having the light of present truth and the solemn warning for this time? To answer this question in the affirmative would be unreasonable, and would give the lie to our profession. This people in all these localities must therefore be enlightened by the truth for these times; they must have the warning that God has designed for all those that dwell on this earth. And it is small tracts that are to be first brought into requisition for the accomplishment of this great work on which depends the solution of many honest souls who are now groping their way in the dense darkness of error and superstition; and as a general thing, these must be distributed gratuitously among Catholics. We have as yet no French paper published in America, and a paper published in Europe cannot be expected to do the work that one published in America can. In this fast age, in which nations and peoples have their marked individualities, people wish to know not only those things that are of general interest, but also those which relate particularly to themselves and to their respective countries, those things that occur the nearest to them. Therefore it is easily seen that the French in America, like those of other nationalities in this part of the world, should have a paper published in America. But this is not the thing that we are now urging upon the attention of the readers of the REVIEW. We are out of tracts with which to do pioneer work, and to prepare the way for the disposal of our larger works. We also need a few pamphlets published in French. How shall this be brought about? Shall our central publishing house take upon itself alone the burden of getting out these works? Such a thought is repulsive to those who take broad views of things, and do not wish to see the parent of all our other publishing houses and institutions crippled so that it cannot go on in the accomplishment of the work for which it was created. Our central publishing house has done nobly in liberally contributing to the publishing of several of our French tracts; but we are decidedly opposed to establishing a precedent which, if followed, would make it impossible for this parent institution to deal liberally with the French and with others, as it has in the past. Is it not, therefore, to our French brethren and to our people generally that we are to look for the raising of a fund required just now to publish tracts that are greatly needed to do pioneer work among the French, especially among French Catholics? I refer to such works as, “Is the End Near?” revised and made more palatable for French Catholics, and fully up to recent striking signs and developments, etc. The French tract fund has long been exhausted. We need over a thousand dollars to publish the works referred to, without which we are greatly retarded and crippled in our work. Will our French brethren and our brethren and sisters generally come to our rescue? Should not our French brethren in America be left free to donate for this noble object, without neglecting home wants and other calls for help from other sources and for other objects? Some of the heaviest donations to the cause, whether for the prosecution of the work in America or in Europe, have come from the French brethren in America. These have done nobly in helping to meet home wants and to build up American institutions designed primarily for the furtherance of the cause among English-speaking people. Is it anything but fair and equitable for our brethren of the English tongue to help us now, and to keep our central publishing association where it can perform its normal, reasonable functions, in this our time of need? Would not such a course tend to unite more closely our French brethren to our English-speaking American brethren? Indeed, why should not our brethren and sisters of all nationalities unite to give a helping hand at this time, thus giving another tangible evidence that no wall of separation exists between us, that we have one common cause, and are all one in Christ Jesus? I would also earnestly request those who are studying the French language in our schools with a view of laboring for the French, to remember the French fields in America as well as those in other parts of the world. “Charity begins at home;” and in consideration of the fact that the French in America have, as a general thing, been brought more in contact with the light and influence of the gospel than have those in the mother land, to make special efforts for the French in America will contribute more to the furtherance of the cause among the French generally, including, of course, those in France, than to centralize our strength and efforts in any other country, France not excepted. All those who are accustomed to using an ax know very well that to succeed in splitting a knotty pine log, one must take it the easiest way and strike the knot in the direction of the grain. Let us strike for the French, directing our first efforts and strong measures and agencies where a wise Providence has already opened the way before us, without neglecting the country where are found the bulk of the French people. Success in the French cause in America will marvelously help advance the work among the French in France. And right here the following words from “Testimony for the Church,” No. 34, page 24, are to the point: “If His [God’s] people are watching the indications of His providence, and stand ready to co-operate with Him, they will see a great work accomplished. Their efforts, rightly directed, will produce a hundredfold greater results than can be accomplished with the same means and facilities in another channel where God is not so manifestly working.” The apostle Paul and his assistants followed this principle by making the pious Hebrews among the Gentiles the first objects of their attention and the nucleus of the churches they established among the heathen. I am now the only French laborer in Canada. In this country God has given me a new lease to life, by adding His special blessing to my exercise with the ax and in the hay field while doing missionary work. By this means a serious internal difficulty which had for years threatened my life, has been removed. But I am an old man, and though I am stronger to preach and to do other kinds of missionary work than I was when I, with Elder J. N. Loughborough, took part in opening up the work in California one third of a century ago, yet I do not expect that even the latter rain will revoke the laws of nature, and make the aged, in every respect, as good for pioneer work in any climate as the buoyant and valiant youth. The blood flowing through my veins has not the warmth that it had in my youthful days, and the cold winters of Canada are taxing on my vitality; and unless I am in warm quarters here during the winter season, I shall be in great danger of pneumonia. Therefore my alternative is to either do city work winters or to go to a warmer climate. A long experience has taught me that the former I cannot do to advantage without tracts with which to introduce myself in families, etc. Nor can I do this successfully in large cities without one or more young French laborers. May God put it into the hearts of strong and consecrated youth to come to our rescue, and stir up our people throughout America to furnish the needed means to publish French literature, for lack of which the French cause is languishing. D. T. BOURDEAU.